Respiratory care program graduates pose for group photo.

The DECC auditorium was packed with proud family, friends, faculty and staff on Monday, May 18 to witness the graduation of Lake Superior College’s class of 2009. Colonel Penny J. Dieryck, the Mission Support Group Commander, 148^th Fighter Wing, Minnesota National Guard, was the keynote speaker.

In her welcoming remarks, Dr. Kathleen Nelson, president of LSC, noted the diversity of the graduates: “Today we are awarding approximately 1,150 degrees, diplomas and certificates to approximately 1,105 students.   148 of these graduates are graduating with honors, and another 170 with high honors.  While only about half of our graduates could join us today, we pay honor to all of them.  What wonderful accomplishments we celebrate!  Our graduates this afternoon are diverse and truly reflective of the community we serve.   Let me create a sketch of our graduating class for you.  35% of our graduates are men and  65% are women.  39%  are under the age of 25 and 7% are 40 or older.  25% of our graduating students are married, and all of our graduating parents have between them more than 681 children.  We even celebrate, this afternoon, the graduation of 75  grandparents who are hearing the cheers of more than 62 grandchildren!  Think about all of those potential LSC students! Our graduates are dedicated not only to their studies but to their families and to their non-academic work as well.  67% of our graduates have worked part-time during their academic careers, and nearly 21% of our graduates have worked full-time jobs during their educations.  While they are not studying, nearly all of our graduates volunteer regularly, including time spent volunteering in spiritual activities, sports’ leagues, children’s activities, and community committees or sharing time with and caring for aging parents.

Upon graduation this afternoon, 214 of our graduates will return to LSC to work on another academic award, while another 279 will transfer to another higher education institution. Our working community will welcome more than 600 of our graduates following this afternoon’s ceremony.  This afternoon’s graduation ceremony is truly a family affair, as many of our graduates are related to one another.  We have husbands and wives graduating this afternoon, parents and their children, brothers and sisters, cousins and nieces and nephews.  We truly are an LSC family!  What a wonderfully diverse graduating class we celebrate this afternoon!  Congratulations, graduates!”

(Pictured above:  Top row, left to right: Cassandra Schilling, Mary Cusack, Elena Hanzel, Maryanne Bendas, Alena Pekkirinen. Deanna Lempi, Brianna Streu, Anita Ramirez,

Leah Isaacson, Sammie Sheets, Sahra Ali, Lisa Goerdt, Sandra Stenzinger, Sheila Smith)

Tags: LSC graduation

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Academics, Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.